Christmas 2009

This year at Christmas was absolutely MAGICAL. There were 12 of us at Mom and Dad's house Christmas Eve into Christmas Morning and it was SO fun!! The parents filled the house with presents and food and the kids filled the house with giggling and fun! Here's my sweet baby with his Lolli and Chance before the festivities started! Isn't he just gorgeous? (If I do say so myself, ahem)

Once the rest of the kiddos came it was time to start making our Happy Birthday Jesus cake! It's tradition you know. However, for the life of us, we couldn't get a good picture of all of them!! This is the BEST we got! I'm serious.

Here they all are helping me put in the mix. Karter Lane is holding the bowl!

Yeah - we tried again. And, you'll probably notice a theme here. The ONLY kid who LOOKS at the camera during any of the pictures is Karter. EVERY TIME!

Malachi wanted ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the mixer. He was okay sitting there but had NO desire to actually touch it!

And then, they each got to look a beater/spatula/spoon!

Maybe I spoke too soon - Kadi Jo did a good job looking at the camera here! There's a first time for EVERYTHING right Aunt Kelly?

Here's the final masterpiece! And yes, the first "s" is an upside down 5. You can read about why we have that tradition here.

And, finally, I got my Happy Birthday Jesus plate that I've always wanted to remind Santa why we celebrate! I LOVE this plate and can't wait until my kiddos are old enough to understand it!!!

After we finished the cake, Lolli let all the grandkids open their pajamas for the evening! Here's Malachi's. I ask you, in all reality, are these not the CUTEST things you've EVER seen???

The kiddos played and played and played and finally, it was time to go to sleep. So, Malachi got his new pillow from Aunt Kelly - (Note, Monkey pillow case!!) We are ALL things monkey at our house!!
When the kiddos went to sleep, the adults stayed up and played Wits and Wagers, endorsed by our hero, Dave Ramsey. It is THE MOST FUN we've had in a VERY long time!! It's an awesome game and I TOTALLY recommend it!

After a couple hours of completely side-splitting laughter, it was time for us to get all the Santa stuff out go to sleep so Santa could visit. And, visit he did! Here's Malachi's stocking stuff. Of course he had to have his peppermint stick like he does every year. And I can't wait to watch the Curious George video with him!! Thanks Santa.

Here's his little Santa corner. (Hey, when Santa's putting out toys for 4 kids, you have to be creative!) He LOVES the munchkin bath toys and his pull behind puppy. And, of course, you see the guitar in the front. I'm telling you this kid LOVES music. Finally, the Veggie Tales videos were SUPER exciting for Mommy and Daddy to wake up to. We LOVE Tales from the Sock Drawer already!! However, let me just make a mental note to remind Santa of something next year. Dear Santa, "washable" bathtub crayons aren't supposed to take COMET to come off the bathtub. Just a tip. Thanks!

I have to be honest that Malachi wasn't completely into the opening of presents this year. There was WAY too much activity for him to be sitting down opening presents! BUT, he LOVED this "choo choo", AKA a John Deere Tractor from Aunt Net and Uncle Frankie!! He even knows where each little animal goes and puts them in their proper place while he's playing with it. Genius...I know!

He has also demonstrated an absolute LOVE of driving lately, so we got him this cute little steering wheel toy! He carries it around and really likes to honk the horn!

Here's Daddy playing with him and his new bathtub toys. And, of course, he's got his "buppy" and his guitar right there with him. Rarely do those two leave his side at home. Actually, strike that, I think the guitar has taken up residence in my car!

The adults got in on the action too! Here's daddy with his new 6 in 1 hoodie/scarf/mask/etc! He's wearing it today, actually.

And, though I don't have any pictures of me wearing my earrings, my wonderful husband got me some beautiful White Emerald Hoops and a brand new set of hot rollers! I'm growing my hair out and, though I've had to figure these new boogers out (i.e. - don't leave them in your hair longer than 5 minutes if you don't want to look like Shirley Temple) - I'm SUPER excited about using them in my quickly growing hair!! Thanks honey! I had a marvelous Christmas!

I didn't upload the 200+ pictures I have of Christmas and the AWESOME presents that everyone gave/got for two reasons. The first - I don't have the time. The second - the presents just DIDN'T matter this year! Honestly, this was THE BEST CHRISTMAS we've ever had as a family! Everyone got presents that MEANT something to them. And that, to me, is better than all the money and expensive presents in the world!!!

Wiping tears away - sorry. After 2.5 hours of opening gifts and 7 (55) gallon trashbags full of trash later, the kiddos wanted breakfast. So they ate at their new picnic table from Lolli!!

After this all the families went back to their respective homes to prepare for Christmas lunch. UNFORTUNATELY I was struck with a MASSIVE migraine right after we ate and I was forced to come home and take some medicine. Thomas stayed with me while the rest of my family watched Malachi and played and ate some more. So, Christmas morning was wonderful and magical and COMPLETELY unforgettable, but Christmas Day was somewhat of a bust. We didn't even get a family picture on Christmas. It's such a shame. Unfortunately I can't help but think that the migraine was related, in some way, to the TIA I had a few weeks ago. However, I have found out that I have several goiters on my thyroid so I've been started on some synthetic thyroid medicine to try to help regulate that. I'm trying to get into a neurologist still and now I'm also trying to get into an endocrinologist. Oh well - God knows what's going on and I trust my doctors to treat me well. We'll get it figured out.

New Years was spent at Uncle Steve and Aunt Donna's house playing, again, Wits and Wagers and, come 12:05, we were on our way home. It was quiet and fun and relaxing and we rang it in with our best friends. I'm so thankful for this year and the wonderful new start that we have. Thomas and I resolved to read our Bibles through this year, so please keep us accountable in this. Also, I'm GOING to lose at least 10 pounds by May for my 10 year reunion and for our cruise in July. So, I'm REALLY watching my weight and what I eat! (In other words, don't offer me chocolate between now and August) PLEASE!

I pray that your Christmas was as blessed as ours and I pray your new year will be fantastic and God-filled!

Life as we NOW know it

A year ago we were concerned about Malachi not being able to hold anything down wondering if he was going to have to have stomach surgery. Pleading with doctors to listen to us that something was wrong with our baby and driving back and forth to multiple doctors' appointments every week. Now, he's perfectly healthy and is the absolute LIGHT of our lives.

This year, it's a new challenge. Last Thursday I had a Transient Ischemic Attack (TIA) - Otherwise known as...a mini-stroke. Yes, you read that right. I am a 27 year old female who woke up last Thursday morning and had a stroke. Obviously I'm okay now, but it was, by far, the 2nd scariest thing I've experienced in my life. (The first was waking up when I was pregnant with Malachi bleeding and thinking I was miscarrying him like I did his twin.)

I woke up Thursday morning to the immediate thought of "Okay self, let's get busy, we've got 4 meetings today and it's going to be a crazy day!" After my shower I got a little dizzy so I sat down then I started to feel a headache coming on so I popped 4 Ibuprofen. Obviously with 4 meetings, it was NOT the day to have a headache. Then, I walked into the living room to tell Malachi to take another bite of breakfast (like I often have to do...you know, Curious George is pretty intriguing) and, when I spoke to him, all that came out was a bunch of gibberish. I'm sure it sounded something like "Id po fe mey alaighe aeoifjqpdj" - or at least that's what Malachi's blank stare told me. I immediately went back into the bathroom to see if my face was drooping or anything like that. It wasn't, thank goodness. And, it lasted about 3 minutes or so until Thomas got out of the shower. As soon as he did I tried to talk to him and about every 3rd word just wouldn't come out. It was SPOOKY. But, after that, it was over other than being tired and having a headache. Thankfully my mom HAPPENED (I don't really think it was coincidence, I think it was God's directing) to come over to show me her new haircut and she noticed immediately that I didn't look good. She and Thomas convinced me to go to the Dr. and, as it turns out, it was a good thing I did.

After TONS of bloodwork, an EKG and a CT scan, it turns out that my Thyroid level is high. Not ridiculously high, but high enough to warrant a Thyroid Scan and ultrasound which has been scheduled for the 29th. I'm also taking 2 baby aspirin every day and have been taken off all of my birth control just in case. (That's a whole NUTHER story. No, we're not ready to have #2 quite yet, so we're going to pray that the Lord will allow us 6 or so more months before anything happens in that department)

So, last year it was Malachi and this year it's me. I will tell you, it has completely taken me aback and given me more perspective. It's SO cliche to say that, but, it's true. Lots of things don't really matter like I used to think they did. And, lots of things really DO matter that I used to take for granted.

I covet your prayers at this time while my doctors try to figure out if my Thyroid is what caused this and throughout the next few weeks when, apparently, my risk of having a major stroke is quite a bit elevated! I'll close with this verse that I read Thursday night (actually Friday morning around 1:30) while I couldn't sleep for fear that something might happen and I wouldn't be there to take care of my husband and son. No, it doesn't COMPLETELY apply to this situation, but, it spoke to me. And, for anyone that reads their Bible, you know that the Lord can speak to you and apply ANY verse he chooses in ANY situation.

It's from my favorite book of the Bible...any guesses? Well, I don't know if it's my favorite book, but it is definitely my favorite name from the Bible...

"Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it."

How awesome that our Lord promises us these blessings and CHALLENGES us to prove Him!

And, by the way...it's MALACHI 3:10

It's beginning to look a lot...

...like CHRISTMAS!!! Wow! How true this statement is! In the last week we've had snow, cold weather, met Santa (well, kinda) and gotten our tree put up, decorated, presents bought and even presents wrapped and put under the tree already!!

Christmas 2009 is in full swing at the Allen household right now and if you can't tell and mommy couldn't be more happy about it! I know I've said it before, but this year is SO SPECIAL because we have a BEAUTIFUL, HEALTHY little boy who is going to be SO.MUCH.FUN this year! The weekend before Thanksgiving we put up our Christmas tree and decorated it. We thought about trying to include Malachi, but he was sleepy and we figured it would be easier to do it with him taking a nap, so, while he slept we decorated! (And it was fun to just spend time with the two of us decorating!! It reminded us of our first Christmas together and how special that time was in our lives!)

Here are a couple pictures of the finished product!! We did our tree in red/white/lime green and silver and could not be happier! It's amazing what some cheap ornaments and ribbon from Wal-Mart can do to a Christmas tree!

All Lit UP!

The Whole Tree!

I LOVE the top of our tree this year!

Last night we took Malachi to meet Santa Claus for the first time and, well, it wasn't COMPLETELY horrible. Of course, we didn't make him sit in Santa's lap since he had a DEATH GRIP on dad the whole time.

Uh...Hi?

Who are you?

Of course, as soon as we put him down, he started backing away and shaking his head, so we left Santa alone and let Malachi warm up a little bit.

He got a cookie and all was good...

Until we tried to take a picture next to the blow up penguins!

So, Thomas' boss was nice enough to take our family picture so we could at least prove we were there!!

Then, mommy got a cute picture...

...and Daddy got too close to the penguin again!

After all the excitement, we went to see Lolli with her new puppy named ______. We don't have a name yet for him. His name right now is Chance, but we don't really think it fits. Do you all have any ideas for a cute name for this little guy??

Finally - Malachi got some good quality time with Pops!

Thanksgiving

We have SO VERY MUCH to be thankful for this year! Last year we were in the midst of a valley begging God to heal our little boy and make him healthy again. This year, we are on the mountaintop praising that same God for a beautiful home, a wonderful family AND a healthy little boy!!

Thanksgiving actually started a little early for us since LAST Sunday was our Thanksgiving dinner at church. NO LIE, there were 9 - 8' tables completely FULL of desserts that all the wonderful Baptist women cooked for the event. It took 10 women an hour to cut into all of the cakes and pumpking pies and pecan pies and organize the cookies and brownies. It was HEAVEN! (And Malachi enjoyed it too!!)

Here's Daddy and Mommy and Messy Mali!

When I say he was "stuffing" his face, I MEAN it! His FAVORITE Uncle Daniel (and, doesn't Kadi Jo look cute too??)
Whip Cream Face!

In preparation for Thanksgiving, I had been looking for some cute Thanksgiving desserts to make and found these at bakerella.com! So, I decided to try them, only as cheesecake balls instead of cake balls. Cousin Morgan and I worked at Aunt Dena's house for about 3 hours on them! We had so much fun and even though they don't COMPLETELY look like Bakerella's (a professional baker, might I add) I was pretty happy with them! Too bad they were so rich that you could only eat like 1/2 of one!!

What do you think?

Otherwise, Thanksgiving went SMASHINGLY!!! Thomas and I were in charge of the ham for the first.time.ever. But, I think it turned out pretty well! We cooked it in 3 cups of Apple Juice, 1 cup of orange juice and then 30 minutes before it was done, we smothered on a brown sugar/honey glaze!

Here's my handsome hubby carving the ham and my daddy carving the turkey! YUMMO!

We took lots of pictures...

Our family

Me and Cousin Mo-Mo

Malachi and Grandmommy

Malachi and Kadi yelling at Gracie - the Chihuahua who ran away with the hambone

Hannah, Kelly, Aunt Dena, Grandmommy, Lolli, Cousin MoMo and Me

...ate lots of yummy food, including the turkey balls...

Kadi and Karter ...and made it home to Lolli and Pops' house just in time to nap, watch the Cowboys play and admire Lolli's tree...
...from underneath... ...while it spun around! (Yes, their tree rotates...does it GET any cooler than that?)

And, finally, I leave you with a couple of pictures and a video of Malachi helping Lolli peel potatoes for her famous mashed potatoes!! (Hint - if you're reading this on facebook, please had over to http://www.tjandmallen.blogspot.com/ to see this video! It's TOO TOO CUTE!)